I've never written anything like this on my blog before but here goes. As a member of Grace Family Church I was asked to go to Zambia by Hennie Hanekom who is part of the Every Home for Christ organisation to document the conference in the Gwembe Valley of Zambia. It was truly an honour to be asked to be apart of such a great project. I was to photograph the conference, the newly built clinic as well as the Soles for Jesus shoe distribution. I was so excited.
Barry (the architect for the clinic) and I departed for Zambia on the 19th of August and arrived at appoximately 1pm. We hired a car and drove for about 4 hours to get to the Gwembe Valley followed by another 45min on a dirt road to get to the village. By that time it was dark. So dark you could barely see your own hand in front of you. As I looked up I could see every star and the milky way strip across the sky. It was so amazing! From what I could hear there were already so many people from the villages ready to come and worship God. They organised a small generator to power up a few light bulbs. We started off with some amazing praise and worship. Praise and worship like I've never seen or heard before. With only a bongo drum and hundreds of loud voices coming together in song filled the place up with such excitement and passion for the Lord. I immediately thought of how spoilt we are in Jhb with all our fancy and expensive music equipment. After the service at about 10pm, Barry and I began to set up our tent and started a fire to cook dinner. Steak and sweet corn that we bought from Checkers in Livingston. As we set up our tent and got ready for bed I wondered where everyone else was going sleep. “Just outside on the sand” Barry said. Those who came early managed to find a spot inside the clinic.
I woke up at 6am the next morning, grabbed my camera, walked about 100m and saw about a hundred people sleeping on the ground. Thankfully they at least had blankets as it was freezing! This really broke my heart, not only because I felt bad for them but because of what they are willing to do to be at christian conference.
There were so many children and one can so easily fall in love with them. I started taking photos of them and then showing them the picture from the back of the camera. They found it so funny and laughed so hard when they saw themselves in the photo. I started with one boy then became two then about 30 of them started crowding around me all trying to get a picture. It was just so funny!
The Soles for Jesus distribution started at 10am. This is what I was really excited for! Majority of these people either had really torn up shoes or no shoes at all. It was a real blessing to see them receive a new pair of shoes. One little boy received a nice pair of black tekkies and as he put his foot inside he felt something was in there. He looked and found an A4 folded piece of paper with a colourful drawing done by one of the donators child:) If you'd like to know more about SFJ, please visit their site!
Www.solesforjesus.org
The trip ended on Sunday and although I was exhausted I was sad to leave. I met some amazing people such as Albert and Oliver who were the lead pastors of the christian movement. This trip made a huge impact in my life and I will never forget it. I want to personally thank Grace Family Church, Every Home for Christ and Soles for Jesus for making this possible.
Albert, Barry, Me, Oliver
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